XtremeDSP development platform for low-cost video development

The folks at Xilinx have announced the immediate availability of the XtremeDSP Video Starter Kit – Spartan-3A DSP FPGA Edition, a complete development platform for video applications that require low-cost and high-performance video processing.

This new kit gives designers of video applications everything they need to accelerate their development including robust video specific intellectual property (IP), reference designs, XtremeDSP and Xilinx Embedded Processing development tools, and a Spartan-3A DSP FPGA development board with video daughter card.

XtremeDSP Video Starter Kit – Spartan-3A DSP FPGA Edition.
(Click this image to view a larger, more detailed version)

Designers can use the new kit to accelerate their development of high-speed video systems for cost sensitive applications including machine vision, multimedia set top box, endoscope, portable ultrasound, automotive driver assistance and other systems that require low-cost and high-DSP performance.

The video development kit is part of the Xilinx XtremeDSP solution that also includes the XtremeDSP Starter Kit – Spartan-3A DSP FPGA Edition, which was announced at the same time.

Video processing performance requirements in markets such as surveillance are increasing beyond the capabilities of a traditional DSP processor. FPGAs can be used in these applications as co-processors to offload performance critical processing operations or as standalone video processing engines. The parallel computing nature of the FPGA fabric supports much higher sampling rates and more data throughput than a standard digital signal processor, delivering 3 to 4x the performance along with better computational power efficiency. The fabric of the Spartan-3A DSP family is optimized for DSP and delivers cost/performance of 20 billion multiply-accumulates per second (GMACS) for under $30.

The XtremeDSP Video Starter Kit – Spartan-3A DSP FPGA Edition includes video specific IP including a new Video Frame Buffer Controller (VFBC), three reference designs to help accelerate development, software drivers, and hardware interface support for the various I/O interfaces.

This IP is coupled with a Spartan-3A DSP 3400A FPGA development board, cables, VGA camera and FMC-video I/O module that supports DVI input, single channel in and out composite, S-video in and out, and dual camera interfaces.

The kit also comes complete with System Generator for DSP and the Xilinx Embedded Development Kit (EDK). System Generator for DSP enables the use of The Mathworks Simulink and MATLAB modeling environment for FPGA design. The EDK is an all-encompassing solution for designing embedded programmable systems. EDK includes the Platform Studio tools suite, embedded IP cores and the Xilinx MicroBlaze embedded processor.

Pricing and availability
The XtremeDSP Video Starter Kit – Spartan-3A DSP FPGA Edition (DO-S3ADSP-VIDEO-SK-UNI-G) is available now for $1,595. For more information, please visit www.xilinx.com/vsk_s3.